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Jonathan Keim (munchezuma)

Dead Run is now live! Battle zombies with your friends to gather supplies and get out alive.

The Kickstarter runs from November 1-30, 2016

The objective of the game isn't to kill all the zombies. The objective is to survive and escape. With a limited number of turns, and the zombie horde constantly growing, it gets pretty intense. My goal is to keep games fun, and develop new ideas for a long time coming. I want to ensure the people who buy my games are getting their money's worth. Help me achieve my dream!

This is a (slightly older than in the video) version of the board. On the top left, you have the turn counter, which is just to track where you are in the game time. On each turn, a player rolls a die, and on the side rolled, you get a number of zombies equal to the turn number. On the right you have the THREAT level. This tracks how tense everyone is, and how likely bad things are to happen to everyone. Bottom right, you have the supplies. You start with 6 supplies plus 2 for each player. And on the bottom left, you have the starting number of players, how many of those players need to escape (the white players) and how many supplies are needed to escape. So if you have 3 players, you start with 12 supplies (6+2+2+2) and you win if 2 players escape with a total of 35 supplies.

There are two types of Survival cards. Actions (A) happen immediately and are discarded, while Items (I) are kept in play and can be used repeatedly. Players start with 2 Survival cards each, and draw one new card each turn. Any text in red font concerns Sound, which moves the zombies around the board, as well as affects the THREAT level. For every sound made, each zombie on the board will move one hex towards that sound. For instance, if player makes one sound, the zombie will move as close to that player as possible.

This has a great game concept, and I love the addition of sound as a mechanic.

Since your Kickstarter funding looks unlikely to come through, may I make some suggestions, in case you decide to relaunch?

You may want to be further in the production process by the time you have a KS campaign. You have just a prototype board and no artwork. You need to get something designed and printed first. That takes money and commitment, of course, but that's what you're asking from your backers. You have to make the first leap of faith.

Reviews help, too. They aren't just a marketing tool: they can help you improve the game. Check other KS campaigns for reviewer ideas. Some will take a game in your prototype stage, and those are helpful for early feedback. Others will want a more complete game; endorsements from those can go on your KS page to encourage pledges.

Your prices are higher than comparable games, as is your funding target. Print-and-Play can be lower, and for your complete game, you don't really know the costs yet, since you have no designer or printer.

Stretch goals can encourage people to back you through KS. Otherwise, why not wait until the game is out and has reviews?

T-shirts aren't a likely source of backers, nor is an expansion offered with no information about how it plays or what it looks like.

I see you haven't backed any KS games yourself. Do so. The KS community likes that, and it'll give you a much better sense of what everyone expects from a campaign.